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The Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) or in German, IKL (''Inspektion der Konzentrationslager''; ) was the central SS administrative and managerial authority for the concentration camps of the Third Reich. Created by
Theodor Eicke Theodor Eicke (17 October 1892 – 26 February 1943) was a senior SS functionary and Waffen SS divisional commander during the Nazi era. He was one of the key figures in the development of Nazi concentration camps. Eicke served as the sec ...
, it was originally known as the "General Inspection of the Enhanced '' SS-Totenkopfstandarten''", after Eicke's position in the SS. It was later integrated into the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office as "Amt D".


Inspector of all concentration camps

SS-'' Oberführer'' Theodor Eicke, became commandant of
Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...
on 26 June 1933. His form of organization at Dachau stood as the model for all later concentration camps. Eicke claimed the title of "Concentration Camps Inspector" for himself by May 1934. As part of the disempowerment of the SA through murder during the " Night of the Long Knives" he had personally shot
Ernst Röhm Ernst Julius Günther Röhm (; 28 November 1887 – 1 July 1934) was a German military officer and an early member of the Nazi Party. As one of the members of its predecessor, the German Workers' Party, he was a close friend and early ally ...
on 1 July 1934. Shortly after the Röhm affair on 4 July 1934, '' Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler officially named Eicke chief of the ''Inspektion der Konzentrationslager—IKL'' (Concentration Camps Inspectorate or CCI). He also promoted Eicke to the rank of SS-'' Gruppenführer'' in command of the '' SS-Wachverbände''. Himmler was unquestionably the master of the police organizations and the associated camps, but only those places under the official jurisdiction of the CCI were considered "concentration camps" within the territory comprising the Third Reich. As a result of the Night of the Long Knives, the remaining SA-run camps were taken over by the SS. The factional police functions of the SS were dissolved on 20 July 1934 with the subordination of the SA. Additionally, the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) was officially established as a department for Eicke. The CCI moved into offices at
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
headquarters on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8 in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
. While the offices of Reinhard Heydrich's police apparatus was in close physical proximity to the CCI office of Eicke, Himmler kept them distinct and separated; Heydrich policed the Reich, arrested and detained people and then sent them to concentration camps, where the inmates were superintended by the CCI under Eicke. The CCI was subordinate to the SD and Gestapo only in regards to who was admitted to the camps and who was released; what happened inside the camps was at the discretion of the CCI. The head of the CCI (first Eicke) was subordinate both to the
SS-Amt The SS Main Office (german: SS-Hauptamt; SS-HA) was the central command office of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) in Nazi Germany until 1940. Formation The office traces its origins to 1931 when the SS created the SS-Amt to serve as an SS Headquarters ...
as an SS member but really only reported directly to the Chief of the German Police, ''Reichsführer-SS'' Himmler in this role. This form of dual subordination was characteristic of many SS posts and created free room for interpretation for their members, which is how and why the CCI under Eicke became an institution of both the Nazi Party and the state. Eicke had a free hand in bringing the concentration camps to the highest "level of efficiency"; he especially knew how to use this system for his own ends and contributed significantly to the CCI having sole control of all concentration camp prisoners.


Inspectorate from 1934 to 1945

In 1934, the CCI under Eicke was operating outward from Dachau. Changes and reorganization of the many camps were on the horizon. Under Eicke's direction, the smaller detention centers and punitive facilities throughout Germany were consolidated into five principle camps at Esterwegen, Lichtenburg, Moringen, Sachsenburg, and Dachau. The SS camp guards of the CCI came from all walks of life; there were men, women, Germans, non-Germans, Protestants, Catholics, other religious faiths, elderly soldiers, young men, army conscripts, ideologues, sadistic killers, and those who treated inmates humanely. In 1936, the concentration camp guards and administration units were formally designated as the ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (Death's Head Troops; SS-TV). In April 1936, Eicke was named commander of the ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' and the number of men under his command increased from 2,876 to 3,222; the CCI was also provided official funding through the Reich's budget office, and Eicke was allowed to recruit future troops from the Hitler Youth based on regional needs. The CCI's leader, Eicke, advocated for a tight-knit group. He also did his best to instill a sense of loyalty within the SS men assigned to the camps, encouraging "bombast, bravado, and deadly earnestness" in carrying out their duties. As the camps expanded into the mid-1930s, so did the number of personnel assigned to the CCI. Eicke's most important subordinate, beginning in 1936, was Richard Glücks. On 1 April 1936, Glücks was named by Eicke military chief of staff of the Inspector of the ''Wachverbände'' and later became Eicke's deputy. Many of the administrative duties at the CCI that Eicke preferred to ignore were assumed by Glücks, which over time led to his usurping significant amounts of authority; Glücks subsequent rise to prominence within the Nazi ranks had more to do with Eicke's "ineffectual management" of clerical responsibilities than Glücks' competence. Ideological training intensified under Eicke's command and military training for new recruits working the camps was increased. Sometime in August 1938, Eicke's entire support staff was moved to Oranienburg (near Sachsenhausen) where the CCI's main office would remain until 1945. Nonetheless, Eicke's role as the chief of the CCI placed him within the framework of Heydrich's secret state police; whereas his command of the Death's Head units, made him accountable to the
Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and '' Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Naz ...
(RSHA) of the SS. All SS camps' regulations, both for guards and prisoners, followed the Dachau camp model established by Eicke. On 1 April 1937, the SS leadership consolidated the CCI's primary organization, the Death's Head Battalion, into three units; the first for service at Dachau, the second at Sachsenhausen, and the third at Buchenwald. Then during the autumn of 1938, a fourth unit was created for the latest concentration camp at Mauthausen. The CCI also administered the
Columbia-Haus Columbia concentration camp (also known as Columbia-Haus) was a Nazi concentration camp situated in the Tempelhof area of Berlin. It was one of the first such institutions established by the regime. Development Originally called ''Strafgefängn ...
concentration camp in Berlin-Tempelhof. One of the CCI's original camps, Lichtenburg (which housed mostly women), was closed in May 1939 when Ravensbrück concentration camp became operational. Secrecy increased among the guards and CCI staff as the number of camps and the supporting network expanded. New camps were "largely shielded from sight" and established in remote places. The war contributed to this expansion as the camp system itself grew to support the Nazi territorial occupation with corresponding rapidity. Just one day after invading Poland (2 September 1939) for instance, the Nazis established the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig. At the beginning of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Eicke was reassigned to the front, to be the commander of the ''SS-Totenkopf-Standarten''. Eicke's ''Waffen-SS'' unit carried-out policing duties, deportations, and even executions through 1940 and into 1941, a function that was in accordance with the Nazi regime's ethnic and political goals. Glücks was appointed the new CCI chief by Himmler in mid-November 1939. Glücks made few changes, leaving the organizational structure intact as Eicke had set it up. By 1940, the CCI came under the control of the ''Verwaltung und Wirtschaftshauptamt Hauptamt'' (VuWHA; Administration and Business office) which was set up under Oswald Pohl. Then in 1942, the CCI became ''Amt D'' (Office D) of the consolidated main office, known as the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (''SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt''; WVHA). Therefore, the entire concentration camp system was placed under the authority of the WVHA with the CCI now subordinated to the Chief of the WVHA. Near the end of 1941 and beginning of 1942, it was decided that to support the Nazi war machine, concentration camp prisoners should be put to work in armaments factories. Competing interests and SS beliefs placed the leadership of the WVHA and the CCI at odds with one another, particularly concerning slave labor; namely as Eicke thought of concentration camp inmates more along punitive politico-ideological lines, whereas Pohl viewed prisoners within the camps as economic fodder to be fully exploited, especially in cases where they possessed needed industrial skills or expertise. Conflicts between the WVHA and the CCI only proved deadly to the prisoners due to the fact that both organizations were equally reckless and inconsiderate to the needs of their slave-labor force. Since the inception of the concentration camp system, Pohl had been trying to influence the administration of them. He succeeded, in part, because while camp commandants handled the discipline of SS members under them, they were not actually their superiors. The SS camp members received their instructions from the CCI (later "Amt D"), through their SS camp department heads. This is another example of the SS practice of dual subordination. Except for the admittance and release of concentration camp prisoners, which the SD and Gestapo handled (later as departments of the RSHA), the CCI had sole control over the prisoners. The CCI made all decisions regarding internal camp matters. The CCI also coordinated the operations for systematic murder in other SS divisions, for example, the murder of
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and E ...
s, and the T4 killing operations like Action 14f13.
Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...
and
Majdanek concentration camp Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, ...
s were under the CCI, having been especially built for use as
extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s in the Final Solution. Perhaps unique in part due to the scope of its operations, Auschwitz-Birkenau was concomitantly under the jurisdiction of the WVHA and within the administrative control of the CCI.


SS hierarchy inside the camps


Divisions and duties

The ''
Politische Abteilung The ''Politische Abteilung'' ("Political Department"), also called the "concentration camp Gestapo," was one of the five departments of a Nazi concentration camp set up by the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) to operate the camps. An outpost ...
'' ("political department"), which controlled the lives of prisoners at each camp, became the most important subdivision within the CCI. Under Eicke's direction, all new concentration camps were organized along the "Dachau model". Principally, this meant the segregation of SS members from among the guards or those working in the commandant's department. Within the commandant's department, the same sections were formed, building a core command structure that was replicated at each camp. * Commandant / Adjutant * Political Department * Protective Custody Camp * Administration * Camp Doctor * Guard Command Because of the CCI Inspector's personnel policy, which was based largely on personal relationships, there was only a small elite cadre of concentration camp commandants during the entire
Nazi era Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. Unlike the guards, these "experts" were generally not dispatched to the front.


Duties of the ''Schutzhaftlagerführer''

The '' Schutzhaftlagerführer'' (head of the "preventive detention camp") and his adjutant were responsible for the operation of the camp. The ''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' had to maintain order, take care of daily routines, roll calls and so on. Under him were the ''Rapportführer'', the ''Arbeitseinsatzführer'' and the ''
Oberaufseherin Aufseherin was the position title for a female guard in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Of the 50,000 guards who served in Nazi concentration camps, about 5,000 were women. In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz a ...
'' (if there was a women's camp). They were directly responsible for order in the camp and they assigned prisoners to the outside work details. The ''Blockführer'', each of whom were responsible for one or more barracks, were subordinate to them. The ''Arbeitseinsatzführer'' (head of "work details") was responsible for prisoner work details, both at the camp and outside and making use of professional skills and abilities. The ''Arbeitseinsatzführer'' had every prisoner in the camp listed in a card file by profession and skill. Subordinate to him, was the ''Arbeitsdienstführer'' (an SS-''Unterführer'') who was responsible for assembling and supervising the "internal command", the prisoner functionaries. The ''Blockführer'' ("block" or "barracks" leader) identified candidates from the ranks of prisoners to become the ''Blockälteste" ("barracks elder") and the ''Stubenälteste" ("room elder"). Prisoner functionaries were used by the SS as auxiliary police in a "divide-and-conquer strategy".


Duties of the political department

The ''
Politische Abteilung The ''Politische Abteilung'' ("Political Department"), also called the "concentration camp Gestapo," was one of the five departments of a Nazi concentration camp set up by the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) to operate the camps. An outpost ...
'' was responsible for records about prisoners, their initial registration, release, transfer, police comments about the death or escape of a prisoner, investigations (which most often involved
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
or threats), and keeping prisoner card files up to date. The head of the political department was always an officer from the Gestapo, generally an officer from the '' Kriminalpolizei'' ("criminal police"). He was subordinate to the local Gestapo headquarters, but often received instructions and orders from the RSHA, generally the office involved with matters related to "protective custody". For example, execution orders went directly from the RSHA office to the ''Politische Abteilung'' and the RSHA decreed individual admissions and release of protective custody prisoners. As a Gestapo officer, the head of the political department reported to the RSHA or the local Gestapo headquarters. He was subordinate to them, as was his deputy. The other members of the department, however, as members of the Waffen-SS, were subordinate to the Gestapo regarding technical and functional matters, but otherwise belonged to the ''Stabskompanie'' (staff troops) so that in terms of discipline, they were subject to the camp commandant.


Duties of the maintenance department

The maintenance department was responsible for housing, food, clothing and remuneration of the command staff and guards, as well as for housing, feeding and clothing the prisoners. It was the chief accounting clerk in a commercial enterprise, responsible for the verification of all material goods and their current status and the management and upkeep of its real property. Internal accounts were prepared as requested by Amt D IV, first under Richard Glücks, then Gerhard Mauer. An important office of this department was the ''Gefangeneneigentumsverwaltung'', the "prisoners' property management", which was responsible for holding all the personal property brought to the camps by the prisoners, for sorting, bundling and storing the prisoners' money, valuables, "civilian" clothing and so on. This department was held responsible for the assets; embezzlement or misappropriation was disciplined and offenders could be held criminally liable.


Duties of the chief physician

The head of the ''
Sanitätswesen The Sanitätswesen ("medical corps") was one of the five divisions of a Nazi concentration or extermination camp organization during the Holocaust. The other divisions were the command center, the administration department, the Politische Abteilun ...
'' was in charge of several camp doctors, including dentists, who were subordinate to him. They had several areas of responsibility. The "troops doctor" was responsible for the medical care of the SS guards. The rest of the camp doctors divided up the remaining areas of the camp (men's camp, women's camp, etc.), according to the duty roster. The medical care of prisoners was secondary to their main tasks. Of primary importance were camp hygiene to prevent disease and maintaining prisoners' capacity to work. To this end, they availed themselves of prisoners who were doctors and nurses to serve as auxiliary staff in the infirmary. Direct contact with prisoners as patients was rare. In addition, camp doctors had different non-medical or pseudo-medical tasks, such as selections at arriving transports with new prisoners and in the infirmary (deciding who was fit to work and who should be killed), supervision of gassing procedures, supervision of the removal of dental gold from dead prisoners' mouths, certification of death after executions, especially murders committed by the camp Gestapo, performing abortions and sterilizations on prisoners, as well as taking part in pseudo-scientific human experiments.


Management

In a study, historian
Karin Orth Karin Orth (born 1963) is a German historian, known for her research into the Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentra ...
established that the management level at the concentration camps (commandants and division heads) repeatedly were recruited from a small group of SS members. Excluding the approximately 110 camp doctors, who were subject to a bit more fluctuation, this group numbered about 207 men and a few women. Orth showed numerous similarities within this group, including social background, path of life, year of birth (around 1902), the date they joined the SS and their political development. In January 1945, there were 37,674 men and 3,508 women working as concentration camp guards.


Rotation

By 1944, it became standard practice to rotate SS members in and out of the camps, partly based on manpower needs, but also to provide easier assignments to wounded Waffen-SS members who could no longer serve at the front. Job rotation between concentration camps and the Waffen-SS is estimated to have involved at least 10,000 men and some historians think the number of personnel rotated between the two duties could be as high as 60,000. This exchange of staff in particular refutes the claim that the Waffen-SS had no connections with the SS guards of the concentration camps. Nearly the entire SS knew what was going on inside the concentration camps, making the entire organization liable for war crimes and
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
.


Procedures for punishing violations

The CCI set uniform guidelines for the punishment of violations, enabling Himmler to insist, for purposes of
Nazi propaganda The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi polici ...
, that a proper procedure was in place for the punishment of violations at concentration camps. Adherence to the guidelines was rare, however. Dachau was the first systematically organized concentration camp of the
National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s. The regimentation of concentration camp order and resulting penalties were later extended to all SS concentration camps. Since Dachau was set up as the model camp, other camps' procedure for punishing violations followed the example of Dachau. The punishment of a violation began with the "violations report". A prisoner could be punished for violations related to camp order, such as missing a button on his jacket, for a dish that wasn't washed well enough. The SS man noted the prisoner number on the violations report. Under
Egon Zill Egon Gustav Adolf Zill (28 March 1906 in Plauen – 23 October 1974 in Dachau) was a German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) ''Sturmbannführer'' and concentration camp commandant. Zill was born in Plauen. The son of a brewer from Plauen, Zill's father was s ...
, for example, prisoner functionaries, such as the ''
Lagerälteste A kapo or prisoner functionary (german: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks. Also called "prisoner self-administrat ...
'', were instructed to deliver some 30–40 violations daily to the SS. If a group of prisoners collectively violated a camp regulation, the entire group would have to kneel and then be beaten, for example. If they didn't call the name of any individual prisoner, then all the names would be noted on the violations report. Work crews were searched before and after work for contraband, such as a cigarette butt. The penalty for smaller things was corporal punishment or excessive exercise. A more serious violation, such as sabotage or theft could merit a " special treatment". After a violation report, the prisoner had to wait in limbo while the report was processed before finding out what his punishment would be, sometimes resulting in weeks or months of uncertainty. If a citation came back, the prisoner had to report for roll call and wait. The hearing took place in the '' Jourhaus''. If the prisoner denied his guilt, he was often accused of lying, which meant additional flogging. In severe cases, prisoners were interrogated in the "bunker" until they confessed. At the end, came the verdict and the punishment, for example "
tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
", or " twenty-five" (see photo, above). The camp commandant had to sign off on the sentence worked out by the interrogation officer. In cases such as corporal punishment, the Inspector in Oranienburg had to approve the punishment. An SS camp doctor had to assess the health of the prisoner, but medical objections were rare. The prisoner had to go to before the infirmary and undress. The SS doctor walked through the rows of prisoners and the infirmary clerk recorded the opinion, "fit". A few days later, the sentence was carried out. The particular prisoners had to report for punishment and a functionary prisoner had to carry out the punishment. An SS guard unit attended the procedure. The rules stipulated that the following people were involved in carrying out punishment: *the SS man or prisoner functionary who had filed the punishment report, *the interrogation officer, *the commandant, *an SS doctor, *an infirmary clerk, *a unit of SS guards, *prisoner functionaries, who had to carry out the sentence, *the Inspector of the CCI, *in some cases,
Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
himself.


Nazi propaganda

Himmler cited the protracted procedure as alleged proof that SS concentration camps were absolutely run as orderly prisons that safeguarded against abuse.


Breach of their own rules

The cumbersome, bureaucratic procedure obscured the trail of accountability. The complexity of the penal procedure did not lead to a reduction of violations. The " Penalty Catalog" was unconstrained. Prisoners were often beaten without any violations procedure or they were killed by the punishment itself. Compliance with the penal procedure was not a given. For example, ''
Lagerführer ''Lagerführer'' (Camp Leader) was a paramilitary title of the SS, specific to the '' Totenkopfverbände'' (Concentration Camp Service). A ''Lagerführer'' was the head SS officer assigned to a particular concentration camp, serving as the comman ...
''
Egon Zill Egon Gustav Adolf Zill (28 March 1906 in Plauen – 23 October 1974 in Dachau) was a German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) ''Sturmbannführer'' and concentration camp commandant. Zill was born in Plauen. The son of a brewer from Plauen, Zill's father was s ...
once ordered two men to implement the number of blows in a particular punishment. Although this doubled the number of blows given to the prisoner, the total was counted just once.


See also

*
Extermination through labor Extermination through labour (or "extermination through work", german: Vernichtung durch Arbeit) is a term that was adopted to describe forced labor in Nazi concentration camps in light of the high mortality rate and poor conditions; in some ...
* Glossary of Nazi Germany * List of Nazi Party leaders and officials * List of SS personnel * Kapo (concentration camp) * Nazi concentration camp badges about the hierarchy and stigma of groups of prisoners, ''vis-à-vis'' guards


Informational notes


References


Citations


Bibliography

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Online

* {{Authority control Holocaust terminology Nazi concentration camps Nazi propaganda Nazi SS Nazi war crimes SS Main Economic and Administrative Office